All posts filed under: NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

Parsons Green? When news filtered in of an ‘incident’ at a west London train station, you had to do a double take to be sure it was actually the same idyllic neighbourhood with the ample green park families seem to luxuriate in every time harried neighbouring Fulhamites rushed past . The hustle and bustle from the butt-end of the King’s Road is drowned out by the civilised mellow pace of life in this genteel part of town. Well, it turned out to be southwest London, although it really was just a quirk of geography due to its close proximity to its west London neighbours Fulham and Chelsea. TO BE CONTINUED…

The self-effacing man who created the World Wide Web does not fancy staring at a computer screen if he can help it hence when the National Portrait Gallery commissioned a portrait of Sir Tim Berners-Lee – the inventor of what has now become the internet – he opted to pose with his trusted rucksack without any gizmo in sight. The painted bronze sculpture, by artist Sean Henry, shows Berners-Lee standing at two-thirds life-size on a tall plinth, carrying the leather rucksack in which he keeps his laptop. Apart from photographs, it is the computer scientist’s first commissioned portrait. Henry spent two days with Berners-Lee in Boston, observing and photographing him at work and visiting him at home, before inviting him to two further sittings at his studio in Britain. Commissioned by the NPG to celebrate Sir Tim’s 60th birthday, the choice of Henry to make a painted sculpture came out of discussions with the sitter and his wife, and the wish to move away from the usual photographic depiction of Berners-Lee seated in front of a computer. …

A woman who painted her £15m Kensington townhouse in red and white stripes has been reordered to repaint it white by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Planning authorities because it is in a conservation area.

A man from the west London suburb of Hounslow has appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court over ‘flash crash’ stock exchange manipulation that wiped £500bn off American shares for a few minutes in May 2010. In US Department of Justice extradition papers seen by WLT, Navinder Singh Sarao, 37 is wanted to face charges of wire fraud, commodities fraud and market manipulation. Mr Sarao is alleged to have carried out the criminal enterprise described as high frequency trading from the Hounslow address where he lives with his parents trading as Nav Sarao Futures Limited. US regulatory authorities also allege Sarao made $40m (£27m) over five years. Mr Sarao has opposed his extradition and bail has been set at £5.05m bail with his parents required to deposit £50,000 with the court. He is to reappear in court in May. His passport and his parents’ passports have also been confiscated and he has to report to a local police station. He faces 380 years imprisonment if extradited and convicted of the charges.

A house owner has got one over her neighbours after they scuppered her plans for a triple basement redevelopment in South End, Kensington, a cobbled west London mews. The woman said to be Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring then proceeded to paint the three-storey townhouse valued at £15m in red and white stripes after a protracted planning and legal battle with residents. The Royal Borough which recently outlawed certain basement conversions has been plagued by so- called ‘iceberg homes’ for many years until it finally moved to restrict their explosion. The plans studied by West London Today included a triple basement comprising a swimming pool, a gym and media room. It is believed Ms Lisle-Mainwaring who is at loggerheads with neighbours wants to demolish the present structure and expand it from three storeys to five storeys with four bedrooms. But it is her latest move that has brought a whiff of comedy into an otherwise bitter affair and with it throngs of amused visitors. Social media is already abuzz about the house described by locals as resembling a ‘beachside hut’ …

Guardian columnist and social commentator Polly Toynbee together with David Walker have examined policies of the coalition government and led writers, polemicists and west London residents to debate the scourge of inequality under the Tory-led coalition in a session titled: How the Tories took Britain to the Brink. Follow our live coverage from Notting Hill’s Book and Kitchen and contribute your comments, arguments and observations to the discourse. What are the effects of an unequal society? Post your comments on our live blog (below) from 18:30hrs on Wednesday 15 April 2015. [*Below is unedited live commentary from the event. Comments can still be posted at the end]